DIY Upcycle: Child’s Chair Gets a New Coat of Leopard Skin
DIY Upcycle: An Old Child’s Chair
Gets a New Coat of Leopard Skin
with craft paint and a brush.
A quick and easy faux painting tutorial.
In “The Last Battle,” the final book in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia,
a greedy ape named Shift gets a simple-minded donkey (Puzzle)
to dress up in a lion’s skin and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan.
The ape uses Puzzle to deceive Narnians into serving Calormenes
instead of Aslan, the real Lion of Narnia.
The end plot is to destroy Narnia, which almost succeeds.
The English children get there just in time to save the day.
In our DIY Upcycle, a Child’s Chair gets a new skin.
But the end plot is to save the old chair,
not destroy it.
To show that getting a new skin can be a good thing.
If the Real Lion of Narnia is in control.
Puzzles and fables aside,
This is what you need to upcycle an old child’s chair:
- Sanding foam
- Dust cloth or tack cloth
- Drop cloth to protect surfaces
- Craft paint: medium ombre, black
- Paint brush
- Water for clean up
Prep the Old Chair Surface
Our old chair’s finish is practically worn off,
so that makes our job easier.
We want the surface clean, smooth, yet with a little tack so the paint will adhere well.
- Place the drop cloth tarp under the chair. Sand the chair.
- After sanding, dust well with a damp dust cloth or a tack cloth.
Paint the Base Coat
Our chair is a dark wood stain finish, so we’ll need two base coats of paint.
By base coat, I mean the base color of leopard skin, which is the black in the mood board above.
- Cover the whole chair with 2 coats of black paint.
Add the Spots
The hardest trick to painting a leopard’s spots
is possibly getting them uneven enough.
If you look at the leopard picture in the mood board, his spots are all sizes.
On his back some areas are almost completely black,
while his belly has more yellowish-rust showing through.
- If you feel more comfortable, draw the spots onto the base paint with a pencil before painting.
- Paint in the spots with black paint. You may need several coats for good coverage.
This is a child’s chair, so the artist in us has a hard time leaving this chair with only 2 colors.
Because a real leopard’s skin has so many variations, from golden, to reddish brown and every color in between.
And also, the spots blend into the base coat more at some places than others.
Spend as much time, and use as many color variations, as you have time and effort.
This is our finished chair:
